


The Stars Will Guide You Home

by ritalara



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, FitzSimmons Secret Santa, Fluff, Light Angst, Romance, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:55:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22028929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ritalara/pseuds/ritalara
Summary: Jemma Simmons knew everything there was to know about stars. From astronomy to astrology, and Galileo to Sagan, she had found every bit of information she could find on the topic since the day she had learned about the impact the stars would have on her life. FitzSimmons Soulmate AU.
Relationships: Leo Fitz/Jemma Simmons
Comments: 28
Kudos: 97





	The Stars Will Guide You Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AGL03](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGL03/gifts).
  * Inspired by [written in the stars](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21799339) by [XOLove47](https://archiveofourown.org/users/XOLove47/pseuds/XOLove47). 



> A FitzSimmons Secret Santa Gift for AGL03

Jemma Simmons knew everything there was to know about stars. 

From astronomy to astrology, and Galileo to Sagan, she had found every bit of information she could find on the topic since the day she had learned about the impact the stars would have on her life.

Jemma was young when her cousin first told her about soulmates - that two people’s souls were meant for each other, and that when she was 13 she would find out who her soulmate was supposed to be.

“Well, that’s...that’s part of it, my dear,” her father had explained the next day.

“We had hoped to wait until you were a bit older to tell you more,” her mother had added in.

From there they had given more detail - that soulmates were common, but not everyone had one. Her father had books on the subject and as Jemma eagerly consumed them she had learned that there was no scientific agreement on how soulmates came to be, but there was a clear set of information on how they were identified.

So, on the eve of her 13th birthday, when the moon was high in the sky. Jemma had sat beneath the stars, with her parents by her side, to see if a soulmark would appear. As they waited, her father had begun to point out all the constellations. He showed her Virgo, the second largest constellation in the sky, and told her about the other zodiac constellations and how they applied to soulmates. Her mother had watched with a smile, her hand against the top of her chest, fingers resting on the mark that spread across her collarbone.

“What was it like?” Jemma inquired at a pause in the conversation.

“Very warm,” she’d told her, “Well, it was cold outside, but here,” she’d patted her chest, “it was very warm, like I’d had a long drink of tea. Then I felt, a...”

“Oh!”

As it was described to her, Jemma had felt the warmth in her chest and soon a tingling against her skin. Immediately, she’d yanked at the arm of her cardigan, and watched in fascination at her inner elbow. She’d been surprised that it didn't look red or irritated, but rather as though she had several clusters of freckles appearing all at once.

Knowing enough by that point, it came as no surprise to Jemma that the mark on her arm grew into a map of the stars. Precisely, the map of the exact position of the stars on the day her soulmate was born. Her mum had wrapped a comforting hand around her shoulder and her dad did the same, his arm coming to rest around both of them, while the warmth in Jemma’s torso spread to her own arm where her mark was appearing.

When her cousin asked her later what it felt like, Jemma would only be able to describe it as knowing how much she was loved.

\---

Jemma’s first day at university was off to a fantastic start and she hadn’t even attended all of her classes yet. It was her first break of the day, and she had found the entire student body list on the student website. She had known there would be thousands of people but seeing the scrolling list of names and faces was a bit daunting. Nonetheless, it didn't deter her, and she wondered if there was a way to start filtering out students who didn't have a mark or had already found their soulmate. While she didn't know nearly as much about technology as she did about life sciences, Jemma thought to herself that there must be some sort of computer program or algorithm someone could create to do such a thing.

After another 45 minutes of research she came up empty handed. While there seemed to be a lot of dating sites and personal ads of individuals seeking their soulmate, she knew that she would have to find them in person to know for sure when she met them if they were the one. As she considered her options, the screen of the young man in front of her caught her eye. He seemed to be working on some sort of coding and suddenly inspiration struck her.

“Excuse me, can I ask you a question?”

Jemma tapped him lightly on the shoulder and a bit of static tapped her back.

“Hey!”

He turned around, presumably to chide her, but immediately the boy went silent.

“I’m so sorry! There must be quite a bit of electricity in the air... which is fairly odd for this time of year. I’m Jemma Simmons.”

Jemma stuck out her hand and he stared at it for a moment before she pulled it back.

“Excuse me for interrupting, I just saw that you were working on something there - it looks like html code? I’m not extremely familiar, but I have a project I am working through and I’d love the input of someone who understands programming languages.”

He was still quiet and Jemma wondered if there was something off with him.

“What I mean to say is - can you help me?”

He seemed to blink himself back to attention.

“Y-yes...sorry, yeah, I - yes...I, well, maybe, I could, yeah.”

“Excellent.”

Jemma picked up her things and quickly circled around to sit next to her new paramore.

“I didn’t catch your name.”

“I didn’t say it.”

The baby faced young man pulled back slightly as she sided up next to him but Jemma was not put off.

“You’re right, I’m just being polite. Can I call you something?”

“Fitz.”

“Fitz?”

“Yeah, it's, it's my last name, but, I uh, I go by that yeah.”

“Well I suppose you can call me Simmons then,” she smiled.

“Simmons.”

“Fitz.”

They both nodded at each other and Jemma felt her smile settle. He seemed to let a bit of his guard down upon their introduction, and somewhere in the back of her head a tiny voice told her they were going to be fast friends.

“So, I was wondering if you could tell me at all, from this webpage,” Jemma pointed at her screen, “if there’s enough metadata to create a database of all the students that I could do my own filtering and cross referencing of?”

“Is this some sort of assignment?”

“No. It's for me. I’m trying to find my soulmate.”

“...Oh...”

The boy was tense again.

“I, uh, I’m not sure if I can help with that.”

“Oh. Really?”

She waited for his response, wondering if he was uncomfortable with the topic.

“Yeah, I, uh, I don’t... I don’t know a lot about...about web pages. This stuff, I - this stuff here is for robotics programming.”

“Oh.”

Jemma’s heart sank. She was disappointed that her idea had hit another snag, but even more so she wanted to continue talking with the sandy haired young man in front of her.

“Have you eaten lunch?”

“What?”

“Lunch. Have you been to the cafeteria yet?”

“It's 2 o clock.”

“I know that Fitz. I haven’t been, have you?”

“Yeah, just, um, a little earlier, before I came over here.”

He was looking at her with a tentative curiosity and something about it made Jemma want to get to know him better. 

“Excellent. Do you think you could show me where it is?”

“The cafeteria?”

“Yes...unless...are you busy? Is this an assignment you’re working on?”

“No. It’s um, it's, uh - for me.”

“Excellent. Would you mind walking me then? You can tell me more about robotics on the way.”

___

Leo Fitz knew very little about soulmates - until the day he met Jemma Simmons.

He had grown up knowing they existed, and that a good portion of the population had one. But since he didn’t, he’d never spent much time looking into the phenomenon. If he was being honest with himself, he didn’t much like to think about the whole thing.

By the end of their first afternoon together, Simmons had told him all about her plans to find her soulmate at school. She had been undeterred when he had asked her how she knew the guy was there, informing him that it was statistically likely that her soulmate lived in close proximity to where she was. She had explained that she wasn’t certain if her soulmate was male or female, and that it made the task even more difficult. Thus, she had realized that she needed help to figure out if there was a way to find the details of student information so that she could begin to research her potential mates.

True to her word she had also asked him about the robot he’d been programming, and he was happily surprised when she seemed genuinely interested in the drone. By the time they parted ways they had exchanged numbers, and planned to meet again for lunch or tea later in the week.

He might have, for a moment, thought she was interested in him, but, knowing that she was destined to find some guy or girl that was her other half set him straight, and Fitz smiled to himself as he thought of her later that evening while flipping through the texts from his first day of class. She had impressed him with her questions about his project, and he quickly realized she was one of the smartest people he’d ever met. She also had a lovely smile and something about her presence, while a bit jarring at first, made him feel completely at ease. 

As he thought about her, Simmons’ project lingered in the back of his head. What she was asking for didn’t seem too complicated, and though he’d never done something like it before, he was intrigued to see if he could.

He also wanted to impress her.

\---

When Jemma arrived to her first lab of the week, excited to meet yet another new set of people, the TA at the front asked for her name before directing her to her lab station. The room began to fill up, and at a quarter past ten the instruction had begun, but she was without a lab partner. She began to raise her hand to get the attention of the professor, when a familiar face rushed in the door.

“Sorry I’m late, got a bit turned around, I’m-”

“Fitz!”

The entire room turned toward the excitement and her cheeks pinked as she realized how loud her outburst was. She couldn’t help the adrenaline that had kicked into gear as she’d seen him enter the room, and she smiled wide as he got his assignment and headed her direction.

“We must be partners!”

“I’ve never known someone so excited about chemistry,” he laughed as he set his things down.

“Well you’re in luck, it's one of my best subjects - along with biology, and of course, as you know, astronomy.”

“Are you going to be angry,” he whispered, “if I tell you I’m only here for the prerequisite credit?”

“Not mad. Perhaps disappointed.”

He smiled, and as Fitz geared up for their first experiment, she noticed how much more relaxed he seemed than the day before.

“Are you settling in okay then?”

“Alright. You?”

“Yes - my roommate’s quite lovely - a computer science major, in fact, I think I can probably ask her to help me with the database.”

“Oh...” Fitz paused as he looked down at their workbench, “well, I, uh, I wanted to wait until I had something, but I started thinking last night, I, I think...” he looked up at her with a determined brow, “I can do it.”

“Really?”

He nodded, jaw fixed, and Jemma felt an overwhelming gratitude come over her.

“Thank you, I can - I can probably pay you, or, if there is something you need help with, we could trade expertise, or-”

He shook his head immediately.

“You don’t have to do that. We...we can work on it together, yeah? And if we get what you’re looking for it could, well really, it could help out a lot of people, right?”

“Fitz! Yes! I hadn’t...hadn’t really thought about the applications beyond my own search. Goodness that's a bit selfish isn’t it?”

He shook his head.

“You’re not selfish, just maybe a bit single minded. But that’s probably how it's supposed to be - biology or what have you - you’re predisposed to be focused on finding your...mate - right?”

He looked down again, apparently distracted by the lab instructions in front of him, and a hint of sympathy brushed across her as she watched him, thinking for a moment that it might be a bit awkward for him to discuss soulmates when he didn’t have one.

But there were plenty of people in the world who lived happy lives and had healthy relationships, even if they weren't necessarily fated for each other. As Jemma watched him read, her mind began to wonder, thinking of what the future might hold for him.

She had a good feeling that the two of them would get on well. They would become lab partners and study together, and discuss their shared interests and help each other with homework from their own disciplines. Somewhere in there Jemma would find her soulmate, and she hoped they would like Fitz too. 

They had to. 

If someone who was supposed to be her other half met him they were bound to like him as much as she did. With his bright smile and his warm heart and the funny face he made when he was confused. She had only known him for less than 48 hours, but Jemma knew that Fitz was going to be part of her life for a long time.

\---

“Fitz this is brilliant!”

Jemma slapped him on the shoulder and he felt a familiar zing.

“Ow! Are you rubbing your feet on the carpet or something?”

“Sorry! I’ve never experienced so much imbalance in electrical charges, really - I think you might have some sort of hidden superpower,” she teased.

“No way, it’s you - I think you drag your feet when you walk Simmons.”

“You know I do no such thing.”

He smiled to himself, acknowledging that she was correct, and in fact walked at quite a clip wherever she was going. He and Jemma had discovered that not only did they have lab together, but their class schedules lined up nicely 3 days a week, and had quickly developed a habit of lunch together most days.

This was the first time she had been in his room though, and he hadn’t thought about it until she’d excitedly asked him for his building name and messaged that she’d be there in 15 minutes after he’d texted that he‘d finished the search program they’d been designing. He’d made a mad dash to organize the books and papers that were spread across his desk, and ensured that his dirty laundry was shoved in the armoire nudged against his desk.

“Fitz,” she grabbed his attention, “thank you, I ... I really appreciate this. You’re...this is one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me.”

Her gaze was soft and her cheeks were rosy as she looked at him and Fitz felt a warmth settle in his chest.

“You, ah, you’re welcome Simmons.”

Her nose scrunched as she smiled and then turned to the large monitor on his desk.

Fitz felt a familiar pull in his stomach as he watched her, and though he tried to ignore it, it had been coming on stronger and stronger in the days since they’d met. There’d been girls that he’d fancied in secondary school, but never the way he felt about Jemma.

It had taken him only two days after their first class together to realize that he was absolutely head over heels for her. She was smart, and kind, and there was no better feeling in the world than when he made her laugh. The fact that she had a soulmate complicated matters, but a part of Fitz knew that it could be years before Jemma found the person, and in the meantime, if the two of them remained friends...

“Okay, so let’s start by filtering down to only male students.”

“Huh?”

Fitz was snapped out of his daydream.

“I...I thought you said you weren’t sure if they’d be male or female?”

“I’m not completely sure, but I do think I’m, well, I seem to be more attracted to...men, so I...let’s follow that course.”

This was new information. 

They had discussed quite a bit in their days together, and in all their conversations she hadn’t divulged much about her dating history other than the fact that she knew she had a soulmate and was clearly eager to find them.  
Fitz wondered when she had come to the conclusion that the person was more likely to be a guy.

“Okay. Right then, Male. What else?” 

“Birthdate - the parameters should be-.”

“How do you know when his birthdate is?” 

“The stars.”

Jemma looked at him like the answer was obvious and he shrugged.

“No soulmark, remember.”

“Yes, but, you really don’t - what did your parents tell you on your birthday?”

Fitz froze.

“I, um...they, not much, my...my mom, she...we don’t, um. We didn’t - it wasn't a big thing.”

Jemma paused before continuing.

“So when they took you out, to see if a mark appeared, did you...what was it like?”

“It’s...it was...nothing, I didn’t...it was nothing.”

Fitz had never told anyone what had happened that night that he discovered he didn’t have a soulmate, and it was the last thing he wanted to dive in to, as they sat on the precipice of Jemma possibly finding her own. 

He looked up, planning to change the topic back to their search, and Jemma wore concern on her face.

“Fitz,” she said quietly, “you can talk to me - if you want. You can always talk to me.”

He looked down again, searching for a way to change the subject.

“What happened on your 13th birthday?”

Jemma’s voice was small and he closed his eyes shut, nearly wishing he could disappear from the room. But something about Jemma had him wanting to tell her. He wanted to tell her everything about himself.

Fitz wanted to share everything with her.

“I...I didn’t go...outside, I - my dad, he...he was, um, he, he’s gone. That night, he, uh, he left, and it was...he and my mum, he was angry, and yelling and - it was about me, about my birthday. I think it was about the soulmark, and he, uh - he was really upset at...at my mum, and she told me to stay in my room. She was worried about me - wanted me to be safe.”

He paused, staring at his shoes, and Fitz felt the memories that he’d tamped down for several years fighting their way to the surface.

“After, I went downstairs and she was crying, and I just...I stayed with her. Told her I’d already gone out - that I’d snuck out of my room and sat in the moonlight but nothing happened - that a mark had never appeared.”

He willed himself to look up at her and Jemma’s face was strained, tears pooling in her eyes.

“Fitz...”

“It's okay Simmons, you don’t have to...I don’t want you to be upset okay?”

She nodded, breathing out as she composed herself.

“It's fine, really, there’s lots of people without soulmates - it doesn’t bother me that I don’t have one.”

“But that’s not true.”

Her face was pinched as she shook her head.

“What do you mean?”

“You very well could have one but you don’t know. They could be out there looking for you right now but you don't have your mark so you can’t tell - they wouldn’t be able to tell. She could be here, at this school. She could be wondering who you are and looking for you and all this time you’re here, neither of you realizing that-”

“Simmons stop.”

Fitz pushed his chair back and stood up, too worked up by her reaction.

“Fitz, don’t you see, you could have a soulmate, and-”

“No!”

He turned back toward her firmly.

“I didn’t go outside, so I don’t have one, okay?”

“That’s not how it-”

“Simmons, stop, I don’t-” he started to argue

“No you stop!”

Jemma stood as well and he could see that she was winding up for something.

“You have no idea what it's like to be thirteen years old and know that there is a person out there that is supposed to be your destiny, but you have no information besides a bloody map of the sky on your arm to go by and a promise from your parents that when you meet you’ll feel it because the heavens have deemed it so! You have no idea what it’s like to be looking-”

“You’re right I don't!”

Fitz had never imagined that the night would go this way. That he’d be yelling at Jemma in his dorm room and wishing he had never agreed to help her.

“I have no idea because my terrible father yelled at my mum all evening on the night of my thirteenth birthday and didn’t even bother to say goodbye before he left for good! So instead of spending the last few years researching soulmates I’ve been helping my mum and working hard at school so I could get a scholarship to come to university!”

“Oy!”

The sudden banging on Fitz’s wall shocked them both and Jemma jumped.

“If you two are gonna have a row about soulmates can you do it outside?!”

The interruption from Fitz’s hallmate broke the argument, but the tension remained.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pried,” Jemma began.

“No, I...I wanted to tell you, to...I’m sorry I yelled - I, I didn’t expect us to, to talk about this and, I, I try not to think about it much, and it's-”

“I’m sure it's upsetting, Fitz, I-” Jemma stepped toward him and her arm began to reach out, but she pulled back, “I - I should go.”

That was the last thing he wanted, but he wasn’t sure how to turn the conversation around.

“I’ll um...I’ll send you everything, yeah? You can, uh, you can look up whatever you want, and I, uh...you can tell me later okay?”

Jemma seemed to be fighting tears again and Fitz had to shut his eyes. He couldn’t watch her be upset, let alone be sad for him.

“Thank you Fitz.”

She was quiet as she left, neither of them saying another word.

\---

Jemma was desperate to go back to Fitz. 

To hear about how awful his father had been, and that his treatment of Fitz and his mother had led him to miss the reveal of his soulmark was heartbreaking. She wanted to comfort him, to hold him, and let him cry or yell or do whatever he needed if it helped him feel better. To know how hurt he was by what had happened and not be able to do anything about it was torture. She couldn’t even bring herself to think about looking for her soulmate until she knew that she and Fitz would be okay.

It physically pained her to think that he might have a soulmate but had no idea, and that there was a girl - probably a girl, she assumed - that might have Fitz’s star chart mapped on herself somewhere, wondering who he was. Even if he didn’t believe it, something in Jemma’s gut told her he did have a soulmate. Someone as special as him had to. He was too good and kind and wonderful for the universe to not see fit to gift someone with the joy of being his partner for life.

She wondered again who the girl might be, what she would be like, and how quickly she’d realize how incredible Fitz was. She wondered if she’d notice right away the miraculous blue of his eyes and the soft crease of his brow and the way he smiled gently when he asked her for something. As Jemma considered Fitz’s future, she felt a heaviness in her stomach, a sort of sadness that someday this girl would come in to Fitz’s life. As the feeling settled, she came to realize, not with a shock, but with an all consuming wave, that what she wondered most of all, was if she could possibly be that girl.

\---

The next morning, after a night of fitful sleep, Fitz dragged himself to his first class of the day. He considered not going, but it would do no good to mope. He wasn’t sure how to patch things up with Simmons, but something told him that they’d figure it out. If he didn’t hear from her by the end of the day, he would summon up the courage to text her that evening about their assignment for the next day’s lab. If nothing else, they had science, and he knew they could find their way back to the simplicity of their friendship with that.

It was late in the afternoon when he did receive a message from her, asking to meet. She invited him to her room, indicating that her roommate was out, and said she wanted to talk about what had happened. He was both relieved and on edge. While he wasn't eager to rehash the previous nights conversation, he didn’t want to leave things unsettled between the two of them. In a short time, she had become his best friend, and no matter what, he didn't want to jeopardize that.

As the sun was setting he called up and she let him into her building. As he knocked on her door an unease knotted in his stomach, and when she opened it, he could sense the same coming from her.

“Come in, do you want some tea?”

“Simmons, I’m really sorry, I should never have yelled at you like that.”

All in a rush, the apology came out of his mouth, and her shoulders relaxed.

“I’m sorry too - truly. I shouldn’t have left without mending things last night, and I know it's silly because we’ve just gotten to know eachother but I just...Fitz, if you didn’t want to be friends anymore, I think...I don’t think I’d be able to - it would just be too awful to bear.”

She brought her hands behind her neck in angst and he couldn’t help himself as he moved towards her.

“No, never... Simmons, I, I feel the same way. I - I thought about you all day.”

“Me too!”

He smiled as his nerves settled and she bit her lip.

“Fitz, do you...do you think I could hug you?”

Without even thinking, he nodded, and as Simmons took a step forward, he felt a strange sensation in his chest. He cursed himself for knowing before it even happened that this hug was going to mean something different to him that in did to her. 

Fitz squeezed his eyes shut as she leaned towards him, and as her arms closed around his neck he felt a light buzz, and nearly laughed at the static - until he realized the feeling was moving down his limbs and his torso. He had never felt something quite like this before, and did the only thing he knew to do when faced with something he didn't understand.

“Simmons...what’s going on?”

“I don’t think it's static electricity,” she whispered.

The reverberation inside of him seemed to settle to a dull hum, and she pulled back, her hands settling on his shoulders. He felt a bright zing over the one she most often patted him on, and as he opened his mouth to ask her again, she posed her own question.

“Fitz,” she began, brows furrowed in what seemed like anguish, “when’s your birthday?”

“...August...19...why?”

Simmons seemed to be holding her breath, and her eyes widened.

“1987?”

He nodded and she stepped away, moving toward the laptop on her desk. The room was silent and Fitz was frozen to his spot as he watched her. She typed quickly, and before he knew it, there was a star map in front of them.

“These are the stars,” she explained, lip trembling as she turned back to him, “as they were in the sky the night you were born,” and this - she pulled off her cardigan and hastily rolled up her sleeve, “is my soul mark.”

As Simmons extended her arm out to him he was immediately taken by the intricate design of freckles that spread from her upper forearm inside her elbow and toward her bicep, and every fiber of his being was telling him to touch it, to run the pads of his fingers across the constellation adorning her skin.

“There...there must be a million people born on that day, and I don’t...I don’t have a soulmark...it's...”

“Fitz...”

He looked up and her eyes were locked on his.

“I know you feel it...the warmth...”

His shoulder was still tingling from where she’d touched him last and he could only nod as her gaze threatened to bore a whole through him.

“I...it's...my shoulder...”

“Can I see?”

Her chest was rising & falling quickly and his heart felt like it was going to beat out of his.

“Please,” she whispered.

Fitz didn’t break eye contact as he unzipped his hoodie, and when he shrugged it off, Jemma pressed her lips together. He looked at her questioningly and she nodded, encouraging him. He took a long breath before reaching one hand to the sleeve of his t-shirt and pulling it up. Jemma sucked in air as her hand flew to her mouth and her gasp turned into a gentle cry. He had to turn his neck at an odd angle to see, but clear as day, a smattering of freckles had appeared, reaching from the top off his shoulder down his arm and around his back.

“Fitz...”

He looked back at Jemma and a growing smile was radiating across her face.

“I don’t know what to say.”

She laughed lightly and reached out to him, hand pressing on his other shoulder.

“It's your mark, it...something must have...when I touched you, it...it started to...manifest, or it...it must have been dormant, waiting for you to meet your -”

“..soulmate?”

She nodded, smile still bright, and Fitz was too stunned to say anything else.

“When we met ...the other day, I...I think a part of me - I was drawn to you,” Jemma began to explain, “I immediately wanted to find a way to keep talking to you - and then when you came in to the lab, my...it felt like I...like I’d missed you - and I...I just, I, I could feel it, so strongly, in my chest, and... it's... it’s strange isn’t it? Feeling as if you never want to be without someone...”

Fitz could feel that the effervescence on his arm had settled and the warmth was now pooling in his chest.

“...and that’s...that’s how you feel about me?”

Jemma nodded.

“...is it...do you...” he continued, “- do you feel warm too? And tingly?”

“I feel warm yes, in my chest, and through my limbs, it's - my mum always said it feels like a good cup of tea. That's what it was like when my mark first appeared, and I felt it a bit the other day, and certainly again right now. My mark isn’t tingling but I...it will when - if...”

She began to blush.

“If you - if you touched it...when we, when soulmates touch, skin to skin, it'... there’s apparently quite a...sensation.”

The feeling of wanting to reach out to her surged back through him.

“Do you...do you feel that too, the need to, to touch me?”

Jemma nodded and looked at him with a soft gaze he was beginning to fall in love with.

“May I?”

He nodded back eagerly and her fingertips grazed across his chest, a light friction following in their wake. Before she moved her hand any further, Jemma stilled and looked at him seriously.

“Tell me if...if you want me to stop - if it's too much.”

“I trust you Simmons.”

She smiled before reaching to stroke her fingers across the pattern on his skin. Immediately Fitz felt the warmth on both his new mark and in his chest. As she opened her palm to press her entire hand against his upper arm he was floored by the sensation.

“This is...your, your hands are freezing, but it, the warmth, it's...it must be coming from me.”

She smiled.

“It is. It's your body reacting to my touch. Your soulmate’s touch.”

“My soulmate.”

They locked eyes again and finally Fitz smiled back at her.

“You’re my soulmate.”

She nodded, then pulled her hand back and extended it to him.

“Jemma Anne Simmons. September 11 1987.”

“Leopold James Fitz. August 19 1987.”

As their palms connected, the warmth Fitz had been feeling was now radiating between the two of them.

“Jemma...”

“Leo?”

“Fitz.”

“What?”

“Just Fitz.”

“Really?”

“Do we have to talk about this right now?”

Jemma laughed and surged forward to hug him.

“Fitz.”

As her face pressed against his he felt a spark, and quickly the warmth spread as she sighed contentedly. Fitz hugged her back tentatively at first and then quickly, as she settled into him, it felt all too natural to wrap his arms around her.

His soulmate.

“I don’t know how anyone gets used to this,” Fitz told her, “is it like this all the time?”

“I think probably as time goes by, it, it feels normal - my parents certainly don't react this way every time they hug.”

Her voice was muffled against his shoulder and as Jemma’s lips brushed partially against his skin he inhaled sharply.

“Sorry,” she chuckled, angling away from his mark, “this is certainly going to take some getting used to.”

“S’okay,” Fitz mumbled as he hugged her tighter and settled his own chin down over her shoulder. 

He never wanted to let go.

\---

Jemma Simmons knew everything there was to know about Leo Fitz.

She knew how he liked his tea, and when he was hungry, and how to tell if he’d had a bad day. She knew what kind of music he liked to listen to when he studied, and what kind of music distracted him when he was working on something. She knew which side of the bed he preferred, and what he smelled like when he was fresh out of the shower, and the way his lips tasted against hers.

From favorite foods to favorite books, and Doctor Who to doctorates, she had taken in every bit of information he shared with her since the day she learned what an important part of her life he would be.

“Good morning husband,” Jemma greeted as she snuggled behind him in their new bed.

Fitz grabbed her hand and squeezed it as she rested it on his torso. She smiled against his shoulder, nuzzling his mark and he moaned softly.

“Good morning my wife.”

He pulled her arm forward, stretching it up towards his face, and settled his lips across the cluster of freckles designed just for him.

“Happy anniversary,” Jemma sighed.

“Hmm?”

Fitz’s mouth continued pressing kisses across her arm and she smiled against his back, reciprocating across the pattern that crept up toward his neck.

“Our anniversary - five years.”

“Five years? We just got-oh.”

Fitz turned and she smiled at him lovingly. A hundred years could go by and she’d never tire of his face being the first thing she saw each morning.

“Best day of my life.”

“You said that yesterday.”

“Meant it.”

“Me too.”

Jemma pulled him into her as she kissed her husband, and when the familiar warmth started to spread across her chest she let herself get lost in it. 

Someday, when she told their children what it felt like to have a soulmate, Jemma would only be able to describe it as knowing how much she was loved.

**Author's Note:**

> Huge credit to acciotheforce, sunalsolove, and agentsofship for significant inspiration on this story and the soulmate lore in particular from their wonderful soulmate AUs!


End file.
